Edible Schoolyard NYC uses school gardens and kitchen classrooms to teach students about food — where it comes from, how it grows, how it’s prepared, and how it affects their health and their environment. Lessons emphasize hands-on activities in garden and kitchen settings, but also include student readings and manipulatives that deepen academic inquiry in related fields, such as science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts. All of our lessons support at least one Common Core standard as required by the NYC Department of Education.
Download Our Curriculum
Edible Schoolyard NYC invites educators to download our seed-to-table curriculum for use in their own classrooms. Lessons are divided into several PDFs. Select which lessons suit your needs, or download them all!
Garden Classes
See a sample garden lesson (PDF; 10MB)
Garden classes combine the fun, hands-on experience of gardening with a rigorous approach to related academic subjects.
Our elementary garden curriculum consists of one lesson per month (taught either in two 50-minute periods or one 100-minute block), based on the seasonal needs of the garden. All lessons reinforce a particular academic discipline (math, ELA, science, social studies, etc.). For example:
- Student scientists investigate the components of soil
- Student historians study Native American agricultural techniques
- Student poets compose verse inspired by the garden’s sensory appeal
- Student mathematicians calculate and measure the spacing and depth of their plants
Our middle school curriculum is organized into units combining garden work and in-depth academic exploration of a single topic, such as food justice, food marketing, and the politics and history of school lunch.
Kitchen Classes
See a sample kitchen lesson (PDF; 2 MB)
Kitchen classes focus on one seasonal recipe per month (taught as either a 50- or 100-minute class), with age-level adaptations written into each lesson.
Cooking offers students an authentic — and delicious! — opportunity to apply literacy and math skills as they follow a recipe. Lessons also incorporate opportunities for study of the cultures behind the foods prepared, as well as the science that explains the transformation food undergoes as it is cooked.